Shalandar ~ MtG blog

You say Shandalar, I say Shalandar, let's just call the whole thing off?

2009-09-08T10:38:00.000-07:00

Late summer was an active time for fans of this game. I got a bunch of very helpful emails. Thank you all and keep them coming!

Maarten F. sent in some awesome links to The Kitchen Table casual deck design column over at Star City Games where Abe Sargent has deconstructed each of the computer computer opponents in the game.

Ivo P. pointed me to another forum which provides support for this game: Collectible Card Game Headquarters Manalink 2.0 discussion.

Josh F., a fellow BGG member, pointed out that back in 2006 when I picked up this domain, I spelled it wrong! The game is Shandalar, but I own Shalandar.com.

So, this leads me to my big question for you all, should I keep this website up when the domain expires in the spring? If so, should it be at this domain, or should I try to fix the name? The only reason that I would not keep the site up is if the Collectible Card Game Headquarters forum has a better installation of the game, making this site both misspelled and obsolete.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments. Thanks!

New Site!

2009-07-12T14:47:00.001-07:00

Welcome to this, the new version of Shalandar.com. I've moved some stuff around, featuring the navigation in the middle. Experimenting with some technology that lets me use the actual font from the game in the headers.

Tell me what you think. Is the text easy to read? Were you able to find the instructions and install the game?

The Final Three

2008-03-01T10:09:00.000-08:00

When I quite playing the actual physical version of this game I kept three decks, a 4-color counterspell deck, a land destruction deck, and a Necropolis deck. A few years later I went back and replaced the rather dated and gimmicky Necro deck with card denial / nevinyrral's disk deck that closer resembled what I won my Black Lotus tournament with, minus the 3rd color via dual lands. I also scrounged together a few type 1 (vintage) restricted cards to make it a little more like it was back in the day, e.g., demonic tutor, mind twist, sol ring, etc. (sorry, no "Power 9"). Here are photos of the decks and their contents:

4x Stone Rain
4x Thermokarst
4x Strip Mine
4x Kird Ape
4x Woolly Spider
4x Fyndhorn Elves
4x Llanowar Elves
4x Lightning Bolts
3x Fireball
3x Stunted Growth
2x Icy Manipulator
11x Forest
9x Mountain

Installation Instructions Overhaul

2006-08-21T10:02:00.000-07:00

If you've ever been unsuccessful trying to set up this game, especially if you're running Windows XP, you will be happy to know that the Installation Instructions have been thoroughly overhauled. Even if you opt for the pre-configured fix, you should still at least skim them all so that you catch important stuff like the screen resolution warning. Enjoy!

Shalandar Creature Curve

2006-04-14T19:08:00.000-07:00

First off, you should go read an article or two from a Google query for "Mana Curve", there are so many good articles on the subject I'll just summarize here. The bottom line is that mana curve is about balancing the casting cost of the spells in a deck so that during the vital first turns of a game you are able to play one land each turn and fully utilize every point of mana available. A deck with an optimized mana curve favors lower cost spells, but mana curve cuts both ways. If you've got too many one-drops you won't be able to fully utilize the three mana that is available on turn 2 or 3.

Here's a sample mana curve from one of the math heavier articles I read:
12 cards of 1 mana.
8 cards of 2 mana.
6 cards of 3 mana.
4 cards of 4 mana.

Here's a deck that I built in Shalandar, fighting duels to gather the cards just like in the old days…

I continued playing the deck in Shalandar, defeating all but one of the wizards, gathering all the more powerful spells from dungeons, and hunting Mind Stealers to make copies of them. The deck evolved, at one point it had white for Savanah Lions, Swords to Plowshares, Disenchants and Serra Angels. Eventually it settled on Blue for the third color, as every Type I or Shalandar deck eventually does. Here is what is likely the most powerful version of the deck. I'm also working on a Land Destruction / Amnesia varient similar to Edge of What?, but with (obviously) better consideration given to its mana curve.

Once I'm done building out the Land Destruction varient, expect to see a Type 1.5 constructed version. I just love this aggressive fast creature with a blue-control deck end game concept.

New Domain: Shalandar.com

2006-04-10T17:41:00.000-07:00

The MtG Blog and associated pages are getting their very own domain: Shalandar.com! It will remain integrated with my personal site for the time being, we'll see what happens in the future.

The only new feature I can promise with the new domain is a downloads section to fill in one small gap left by the demise of the-underdogs. The only catch is that, since I don't really want to become a public abandonware site, downloads will be by request only. But I'll come up with a short form to make the requests as painless as possible.

Favorite Decks, ManaLink Connection Instructions

2006-01-24T08:25:00.000-08:00

Still no new decks here, dead or otherwise. But I have been doing a little housekeeping. I've added mini-reviews of my favorite decks for people who are new to the site at the bottom of the Introduction/Setup page. There are so many decks in the archives and the blog, thought I'd give people a place to start. I've also added the following new setup instructions provided by a tech savy visitor:

Want to play MtG over a LAN? Bill Roth from Michigain wrote out some helpful ManaLink Connection Instructions. Note: not recommended over an open network, as one of the steps includes turning off your firewall.

Windows XP Installation Instructions

2005-12-28T16:25:00.000-08:00

If you're running Windows XP and have been having trouble getting MicroProse's Magic: The Gathering PC game to work check out the Updated Windows XP Instructions on my installation instructions page.

These instructions have not been verified, so if somebody does try them please contact me and tell me if they work.

Death Denial

2005-11-13T20:29:00.000-08:00

Type 1.5

Deck Series: From the Graveyard

This is the first in a series that I will be posting here inspired by a deck called Graveyard Shuffle submitted by Ivan Taylor. The deck reminded me of a very similar deck that I had worked on but never uploaded. My version (posted here) has some good concepts, but it never fully coalesced, never found that rhythm that a good deck does, you know what I mean? I intend to take the title of this series both literally and figuratively. I'll start out literally with this graveyard re-animating deck, but move on to other decks that I have started working on, but left for dead when they didn't work out. I will then implore you to take the concepts, make a better deck, and post it in the comments here.

So, about this deck. It has some card synergy that I like. The Nettling Imps work well with the Abu Ja'fars, Sengir Vampires and the first-striking Black Knights. The card-denial compliments the land-denial, and the re-animation compliments all of the above.

What I don't like about it is its weak creature removal, it's slowness (last card added was the Black Knights, those helped a bit), and the fact that it uses too many of the usual suspects. We all know that a first turn Dark Ritual to cast a Hypnotic Spectre is deadly, time to move on and start playing some different cards.

Can anyone help this deck, make it a little less clichéd, or little faster?

The Mana Drain Forum

2005-10-27T19:29:00.000-07:00

Found a vintage (type 1) magic the gathering site called The Mana Drain. A quick site search turned up a discussion of this game: Magic in Shandalar

Shalandar Tundra

2005-09-03T17:02:00.000-07:00

Unrestricted 40 card Shalandar Deck

I've been in a deck building slump. Haven't been playing very much in the first place, and while I have still been coming up with new deck ideas none of the decks have come together. Maybe I'll share some of those half-baked decks along with the problems I've been having with them and see if some of you can help. In the meantime, sick of my highly constructed type 1.5 decks not working, I turned to Shalandar in the hopes that something better might evolve.

In Shalandar, where wizards begin with less than 20 life, speed is everything. Come from behind strategies just don't work, especially in dungeons where life loss carries over. So, given my twisted sense of fun, I set out to build a Blue/White deck.

The result is a highly evolved explosion deck. It always opens fast, with Tundra Wolves, Flying Men and Mishra's Factories. It can then explode for a quick kill with Unstable Mutation. Serra Angels and Control Magic give it that later game defensive power. And then of course there's a touch of white removal: a Disenchant and a couple Swords to Plowshares.

But the thing that makes this deck really fun to play as an explosion deck is the fact that I decided to keep it down to 40 cards to maximize the impact of the restricted cards. With only 40 cards you can really burn through your opening hand and by the time you've laid it down you will often pull something to replenish it.

I think what I like best about this deck is that it really rewards intelligent and aggressive play. My favorite trick is, when in a dungeon where life-loss carries over, to Timetwister / Contract from Below / Braingeyser, blow up a Serra Angel really big with Unstable Mutations, Swords to Plowshares it, and then finish off the opponent with my remaining creatures.

I haven't tried this deck out against a strong constructed deck, just the mediocre monsters of Shalandar. Might be fun to give it a shot.

Island of Pain

2005-06-26T10:03:00.000-07:00

Type 1.5

Here we have it, the long awaited (mentioned back in Testing a New Deck) Island of Pain. I built this deck based on a question in one of the magic books I bought, "What will the deck do against nasty environmental spells like Blood Moon and Energy Flux?" I could answer the question in theory, but I couldn't test my answers unless I had a good deck with one or both of those cards in it. Lightning Sprites was an attempt at a decent deck with Blood Moon, but that deck really doesn't have much in the way of staying power or consistency. So I built this deck originally to test other decks against, but it's so much fun to play (if a bit self-destructive) that I think it'll stick around as more than just a deck development tool.

This is a very aggressive deck. It will generally attack every turn that it has any creatures out. The creatures in this deck are very hard to block. Of the four different creatures in the deck, three of them fly, and the last has mountainwalk. The creatures are also fairly fast, Two of them only cost 1, the others cost 3 and 4. The deck also has considerable and versatile direct damage in the form of Lightning Bolts, Psionic Blasts and Fireballs. The low cost, high damage and fast-effect nature of all this damage capacity means that once the opponent's life is down in the single digits they can often be finished off instantly.

Since I knew from the start the deck would be using Blood Moon I found cards that would work well in that environment. Some were intentional; use Blood Moon to make sure they have a Mountain and Goblin of the Flarg can't be blocked. Others were by trial and error; when you have a Serendib Djinn in play having just a Mountain rather than a Volcanic Island can save your life.

Now if you've looked at the deck you may have a question about the mana distribution, namely, "Why are you playing so many freakin' land when you only have 3 cards that require more than 3 mana?" Honestly, I never intended to play 24 land in a relatively simple two color deck with a single primary* color (*color with spells requiring more than one mana of that color to cast). It was simply trial and error, playtesting, not pulling enough mana and adding some more.

Ok, so I side-stepped the question of why I'm playing so much land in this deck, but now the question becomes, "Why does this deck need so much land?" It's got Counterspells, but it's hardly a counterspell deck. I guess the easiest way to make sense of it is to look at the number of mana sources in most of the decks that I build. I usually play 20 land and then one or two fast-mana spells such as Birds of Paradise, Dark Ritual or Mana Vault. That's 24 to 28 (40-47%) mana sources. I play with that much mana because I require my decks to be both fast and consistent. It also helps out against land destruction and other anti-mana environs. With less mana it's true that later in the game you'll pull more spells, but if the deck doesn't consistently have working opening hands the deck won't survive until later game. Better to find some late game use for extra mana (in this case Fireballs and Serendib Djinns) than to stall out and not be able to play through your opening hand.

Earlier versions of this deck had Black Vise and Ball Lightning instead of all the Serendibs. While these cards made it quite brutal against your average deck that ships with this game, against a quality Type I or Type 1.5 deck they weren't as effective. Also, playtesting against the various deck types the deck was fizzling against fast large creature and burn decks. Now, as with most good decks, Island of Pain contains aspects of a variety of the deck archetypes or categories. In fact, of the 6 types (counterspell, land destruction, fast large creature, fast small creature, burn, environment/lock) the only one it doesn't have is land destruction. Anybody want to try swapping out some of the direct damage spells for some Strip Mines?

Powerhouse

2005-06-22T20:41:00.000-07:00

Type 1.5

This deck is designed to be used by the computer to playtest decks against. It is very slow but very powerful, especially when it utilizes the Triskelion + Diamond Valley bug that Hoovey pointed out, giving the computer an extra 100 or so life.

The deck's strategy is simple. It sits back and gathers mana resources, putting out nothing to protect itself. Once it has gathered enough mana it plays something very large and very powerful, like a Mahamotti Djinn, Shivan Dragon, or the above cheat combo. Oh, and I finally found a deck to put my Two-Headed Giants in :-).

I built this deck for the explicit purpose of testing decks against it, giving the computer an edge with a nasty bug in the system so that it can become obscenely powerful if given the chance to develop. The goal then, in playtesting against this deck, is to see whether your deck develops quickly enough to defeat it before it gets out the broken combo. Enjoy.

Submit a Deck

2005-06-17T18:55:00.000-07:00

Technical Instructions

Find the \Playdeck folder in your MtG installation. Locate the .dck file for your deck and open it in a text editor (such as Notepad). Follow the Post a Comment link on this page, and Copy&Paste the contents of the .dck file into the comment.

Also, you are welcome to include the following:

What type of deck it is. It could by Type 1, Type 1.5, Shalandar, or even just a casual deck.
Any special notes about play; card combinations, sequence of play.
Anecdotes about where the deck's inspiration came from are invited, though you are under no obligation to ramble on as much as I do.

Deck Contents Guidelines

The primary guideline here is to be sure to follow the rules for the type of deck that you said it was above. Type 1 decks can only have 1 of each restricted card, in Type 1.5 the restricted list is banned. Tournament quality decks are made of 60 cards, no more, no less.

Other than that I really don't have any other guidelines. In fact, it would be really nice to see some more casual decks. The ones I build are for the most part tournament style decks, built only to win. But since they are built to stand up against other decks build in that style they often have many of the same cards in common. It's those whacky "just for fun" decks, such as Old Man Wolf and Blue Skies, that are the most enjoyable to play. And if Josher (evidently sporting a crazy beard these days) hadn't sent me his Castle/Moat deck I never would have build Blue Skies.

Whatnaut

2005-06-16T20:07:00.000-07:00

& artifact Type 1.5

This deck began with a card and an idea. The card was Transmute Artifact. The idea was that if you cast Transmute Artifact and sacrificed a mana producing artifact, after tapping it for mana, you could put any artifact in your library into play at little to no extra cost. A Mana Vault can pull out an artifact that costs 4 (without sticking around to ping you during your upkeep), and a Basalt Monolith will let you cast an artifact that costs 6. A Su-Chi would let you cast an artifact that costs 8, if you could find an artifact worth sacrificing your 4/4 creature in order to cast (and that you could afford to power with your remaining mana – ruling out Aladdin's Ring).

If any of you have been following along you'll note that this trick is similar to the Yawgmoth combo in the Yawgmoth-Chi deck, only in that deck the combo was used for end-game power, while in this deck it's used for speed.

I tried out a bunch of different artifacts when I was first building this deck. I settled on two, Triskelion and Juggernaut. I've always viewed Triskelions as being over-priced for their size, but their casting cost works perfectly with the Basalt Monoliths, and their direct damage is excellent if you're playing mono-blue. They're just so versatile. A single Triskelion can often kill two or three creatures, and still leave you with a creature of your own. You can then Unsummon it and do it again, or Transmute Artifact it into another one. The Triskelion's ability can be used without summoning sickness is unique, and you can even use it after having attacked, meaning that a Triskelion can potentially do 7 damage to an opponent in a single turn.

This deck can be played as either a fast-large-creature deck, or a card denial deck depending on your opening draw. Cast a Mana Vault your first turn and you can transmute it into a Juggernaut on turn two. That is blazing fast in Type 1.5 and can be a decisive edge. But what can make this deck truly devastating is the 4 Amnesia. Usually this is a late game card for slower decks, cast once you've established an environment where your opponent is holding cards. It is normally very difficult come up with the mana to cast it, both the total cost, 6, and the concentrated amount of blue mana: . But if you're playing straight blue with 20 islands it's not so hard to come up with. Odds are by turn 3, having drawn 9 or 10 cards, you will have enough colored mana to cast it. The Mana Vaults and Basalt Monoliths, each conveniently producing 3 colorless, give you the raw mana count you need to pull it off early in the game when it can be crippling to your opponent. Take for instance this opening sequence (which actually isn't as uncommon as you might think):

Turn 1: Play a Brass Man to hold off the Lions, Apes, and even Knights.
Turn 2: Put out a Mana Vault, and wait until the discard phase of your opponent's turn to Unsummon one of their creatures (earlier if they tap out).
Turn 3: Here's the fun part: cast Amnesia and watch them weep.
Turn 4: Now that you've emptied all those pesky Lightning Bolts and Disenchants from their hand, cast a Juggernaut and barrel on to victory.

I have toyed with adding white to increase the deck's removal capacity, but you really can't play very many Plains or you won't be able to cast the Amnesia. I've toyed with using something like 4 Tundra, 2 City of Brass and 2 Plains in order to add 4 Swords to Plowshares and 4 Disenchant, but I think I prefer having the Counterspells and Unsummons, since the Unsummon is so versatile in this deck, and the Counterspells help against one of this deck's weaknesses: Counterspell decks.

There is one thing that I could use some help with if there are any deck builders lurking. You may have noticed that this deck is made of 10 perfect pockets of 4 cards each and 20 land. While this maximizes the consistency of the deck's play, it reduces its versatility. With the Transmute Artifacts even a single copy of an artifact could be pulled out in a pinch. But I'm too close to the deck, unable to "kill my darlings" as writers say. It would be great if somebody could find the room for a few "reset button" type cards, cards that could be pulled to get you out of a pinch. A Nevinyrall's Disk would be great. It should go without saying, but I'll say it anyway, no going over 60 cards.

MagicSymbols Type Face

2005-06-06T21:54:00.000-07:00

Check this out:

Now why is that so cool? Because those were generated by the MagicSymbols font that I found in the program directory. Which means that I can create those symbols in any color at any size I want in Photoshop, so if I ever decide to take the time to design my own template for this site I will have this excellent resource available.

Sedge Mine

2005-06-05T09:53:00.000-07:00

Type 1.5

Here we have it, my Howilng Mine + Relic Barrier deck. I got the idea for it when I was playtesting Howling Giant Wurmies against a land destruction deck. I had played a Howling Mine in the hopes of digging my way out of the lack of mana. But the problem was you can only play one land per turn, and my opponent was pulling enough land destruction to keep pace with the lands I was putting down. I was never able to dig myself out of that hole. So I determined to build a deck with my favorite new card combination that had at least a little land destruction. Once it's rolling and you're drawing 2-1 just two pockets (sets of four) of land destruction becomes like four, and suddenly you can lock down their primary color.

For land destruction I added Strip Mine and Sinkhole. Earlier drafts included a couple Stone Rain, but later they were dropped because of their high cost. A couple Icy Manipulators go with the Howling/Barrier combo, and can also be used to tap mana sources during the opponent's upkeep. I was also surprised how often I would use a Relic Barrier to pin down a Mox until I got a Howling Mine out.

After observing the Giant Wurmies deck struggling to cast all it's high cost spells I knew this deck would need a lot of one-drop spells to operate effectively – what's the use in drawing all those cards with the Howling Mine if you can't cast them? So I went with Lightning Bolt and Paralyze for creature removal and Birds of Paradise for fast mana. Dark rituals didn't make the cut, but without x-damage spells they had little use mid to late game. The Paralyze work particularly well in that they either neutralize the creature (if your land destruction has them locked) or neutralize most of their land, slowing them down. That's what this deck is all about, slowing them down while it is simultaneously speeding up.

Without Hymn to Tourach my old Type 1 deck has never been what it should be in this game. Since this deck's primary color is black (because sinkholes require ) and red/green were playing support I decided to pull out my favorite three creatures: Hypnotic Spectre, Sedge Troll and Kirk Ape. The Spectres work perfectly with the land destruction, Sedge Trolls are a solid answer to opposing Djinns or Juggernauts, and Kird Apes kick White Knights to the curb.

As a first candidate for my new deck testing regimen this deck turned out to be a poor choice. By the time I had established the categories this deck was finely tuned enough that it ran through each category three times without a loss, or even a single close game. That's 18 straight games without a bad draw. Sounds like my old type 1 deck that swept through the double-elimination Black Lotus tournament without losing a match. Guess that shouldn't be too surprising as two thirds of the deck is identical to my old one.

So that's my answer to building a deck around that card combo. I'd still like to see the Two-Headed Giants make their way into a deck. Maybe another week.

Deck Building: Testing a New Deck

2005-06-05T09:07:00.000-07:00

So you've just come up with a cool new idea for a deck and slapped it together, now how do you know if it works? My method of testing to this point has been erratic. I build a deck then run the gauntlet, playing it against a number of random decks until it gets beat, then going back and tweak it. This testing technique has a number of problems. On average does the deck lose because it doesn't function as intended? Did it lose because of a bad draw, or an opponent's good draw? Did it lose because it is vulnerable to a particular strategy? It's hard to do more than make gut decisions without appropriately diversified and documented testing.

What I am working on is a logical testing sequence to subject a deck to. My biggest challenge is decks being vulnerable to certain strategies. Often these are strategies that I don't often employ myself—like a creatureless burn deck. The goal with this first attempt at formalized deck testing is to make sure that a new deck is not vulnerable to a particular deck type.

But this shit is boring as hell! I know, I know, that's why I'm only tackling one problem at a time, and making sure to build in a large variety of opponents. In fact, if this works as I intend you will actually end up playing against a greater variety of decks.

To test a new deck I propose to play it against a series of decks in a variety of categories and keep track of wins and loses. Also, because losing against the computer AI is rare, unless the decks are particularly mismatched or you get a really bad draw, I would also keep track of games that were "close" because had a good human player been running the opposing deck it would most likely have been a loss.

There can't be too many categories so you can run a deck against a random opponent in each without getting bored playing the same deck. But they must also be specific enough to prepare a deck for a good range of strategies. Of course in reality better decks will usually deploy a variety of strategies, but you've gotta prepare for them all, right?

The following are the categories that I'm trying out, with sample decks (mostly my own and Mark's).

Counterspell/Control

Control
Type One Counterspell
The Deck
Kim
Four Color Counterspell

Land Destruction

Type One Land Destruction
Edge
Edge of What?
Land Destruction (type 1.5)
Landkill T1

Fast Creature (Large)

Sadomasochistic Djinn
5 is good
Leif Type One
First-Turn T1
Juggernaut (type 1.5)

Fast Creature (Small)

Armies of Light
Explosion
Plague Rat
Lightning Sprites
Nils' Type One

Burn

Atog 1
War Mage
Crag Hydra
Dante
The Flame Thrower (from Master Magic)

Environment/Lock/Combo

Barbed Apes
Blue Skies
Nevinyrall's Wrath
naf's psychic orb
Island of Pain (coming soon)

So that's about it. I play a new deck against a random deck in each category. Then I evaluate where the deck's weaknesses are. If it lost to Land Destruction or Fast Creature (Small) then it might not be fast enough. If it lost to Fast Creature (Large) or Burn then it might not have enough staying power. If it got locked down by a nasty environmental enchantment or artifact then it might not have enough non-creature threat removal. Every deck will have it's own means of dealing with these problems, but the first step is finding the weaknesses.

Restricted List

2005-06-02T19:46:00.000-07:00

Before I present my Howling Mine + Relic Barrier deck I've got a couple general deck building updates. Here's one, there is another about my deck testing practices to follow.

For pennies each I bought a couple Magic books published in 1995 and 96: Mastering Magic and Deep Magic. Though the computer game didn't come out until 1997, the card set it uses pre-dates these books, having no Fallen Empires (i.e. Hymn to Tourach). I have been building decks using a restricted (or banned if it's Type 1.5) list cobbled together from my memory. But there are a number of cards that were not restricted until later, or maybe never were, that played a prominent role in the game environment of the time. So I have updated my restricted list, these are the most notable removals:

Balance
Black Vice
Psionic Blast
Land Tax

Given how many cards just don't work in this game, it seems like a mistake not to fully utilize the ones that do. This will also (and here's where my ulterior motive slips out) enable me to put together a number of the decks in these books that I wouldn't be able to otherwise.

Update Ulterior motive #2: the restricted list is also the banned list if you're playing Type 1.5 and since most of the decks I'm build these days are, this restriction change gives me four completely deck transforming cards that I wouldn't otherwise be playing.

Giant Howling Wurmies

2005-05-25T18:04:00.000-07:00

Type 1.5

Here we have it, another fast-large-creature / burn deck. It evolved from a desire to play a deck with Two-Headed Giant of Foriys. Like Serra Angel and Sengir Vampire it's 4/4 creature with two special abilities that costs five mana, only it doesn't require two of the same color. I looked at its abilities—block two creatures and trample—and tried to think of what deck environment would benefit most from them. My first thought was that it would work well in an environment where you don't have very many creatures (making it's double-blocking ability pull its weight), so I paired it with Craw Wurm and built ths deck.

Except for one card combo the rest of the deck was rather uninspired, mostly just copying the burn aspect of Yawgmoth-Chi. The cool new part is a low-cost artifact combo: Howling Mine + Relic Barrier. You can keep the effects of a Howling Mine for yourself if you tap it with a Relic Barrier after you have drawn a card.

Two turns after getting the combo into play you'll have made up for the two cards it took to set up and have a one-card-per-turn advantage. Assuming your opponent doesn't break the combo and hasn't locked you down with a Moat or something, if the rest of the deck is any good the card count advantage will be overwhelming.

Utilizing the card count advantage is where this deck is failing. Each spell requires most of your resources each turn, so except for a huge mana advantage as you can play a land or mana source nearly every turn (Wild Growth works well here since it pays for itself), you end up sitting on a bunch of cards, as you're unlikely to cast more than one x damage spell per turn, nor will you have much mana left over for a Fireball after casting a Craw Wurm.

So what's next? I have some ideas of course, and I'll share them, but I'd like to open the floor again if any guests would like to come up with a solution. The goal is to make a deck that runs well with the Howling Mine + Relic Barrier combo. Ideally the deck would work well enough with a Howling Mine in play that even if you don't have a Barrier out you would still have the advantage. Oh, and including at least a couple Two-Headed Giants would be really nice.

The most obvious solution is to make it a speed-kill deck, adding one-mana-drops like Kird Ape, Scrybe Sprite and Giant Growth. Another thought, and this might go along with the speed-kill direction, is to add Icy Manipulator and Winter Orb, increasing your chances of pulling an environment altering artifact and the means to control it. Another direction would be to make a trample-explosion deck, taking Ball Lightnings, War Mammoths and Two-Headed Giants and blowing them up with Giant Growth and Blood Lust. I've some other ideas as well, but I'll stop now and let you have a go.

It will be at least a week before I come back with my solution, so if there's anybody listening who thinks this idea has some merit I'd love to see your take - just post the contents of the deck file (found in the Playdeck folder) in the comments.

Update I forgot to mention another novel card that made its way into this deck: Desert. I was looking for very low cost card in addition to Lightning Bolt to help fend off fast small creature decks, both in the early game where mana is scant, and later when I'd rather be spending the bulk of my mana resources on big creatures or burn spells. Desert did just the trick since it costs nothing and can also be used as a mana source. It is far more effective in multiples, and with the Howling Mine running it's easier to get more than one. It's also unexpected, and while the computer's AI will never be surprised, the human who built the deck that the computer is playing may well have not anticipated the card.

Yawgmoth-Chi

2005-05-24T17:45:00.000-07:00

Type 1.5

As promised, here is my version of a Yawgmoth Priest Su-Chi deck. It is a fast-large-creature / burn deck. Let me break it down by card purpose.

For mana we have a bunch of dual lands (because I added white—more on that later), Mishra's Factory, Dark Ritual and Mana Vault. I had to ditch the Basalt Monoliths. If it were a pure burn deck I would have been able to justify that much mana production, but since it is also a fast creature deck Mana Vault was the obvious choice, especially with the creatures I chose.

For creatures we have Su-Chi, Juggernaut, Black Knight, Mishra's Factory and Priest of Yawgmoth. The Su-Chi and Juggernaut have their weaknesses, but a creature that only costs 4 and has a combined power+toughness of 8 is a good deal, and with a Dark Ritual or a Mana Vault you can summon one on the second turn. That is everything I like about an opening combo. You have a high probability of drawing it in your opening hand because there are two cards that if you pull either one of them will work with either of the two other cards. And in this deck each of the four cards is still useful later in the game. The creatures are still big creatures at a low cost, and the fast mana can be converted directly into points of damage by a burn spell.

I ended up only having 3 Priest of Yawgmoth even though they were the genesis for the deck because unless you're casting an end game x damage spell they are under-powered for their cost compared to all the other creatures in the deck.

For direct damage we have Lightning Bolt, Fireball and Disintegrate. That's plenty of creature removal to keep your Juggernauts and Su-Chi out of creature combat where the Juggernaut's low toughness and the Su-Chi's tendency to blow up in your face can be a liability. And in the absence of creatures to remove, unlike the creature specific cards like Swords to Plowshares or Control Magic, direct damage can be brought to bear on your opponent (though clearing their creature threats and killing them with your own is still the most efficient way to win—if this were just a burn deck it would have Basalt Monoliths, remember?).

For non-creature threats (nasty enchantments or artifacts like Moat or Winter Orb) we have a few Disenchants. Yes, I added a third color for a single card, and you know what, even if red or black did have a means of dealing with enchantments I think still would.

Let's play a "what if." What if black had a spell called Rottenchant (1, Instant, Destroy target enchantment.)? Then you could play Shatter and Rottenchant in a red/black deck and be able to deal with artifacts and enchantments. But now you've invested two different cards to deal with one situation—that nasty environmental enchantment or artifact that's got you locked so bad you can't burn or attack your way out off. And you have to get lucky enough to draw the correct one. If your opponent doesn't have any enchantments, then one of your cards is useless. If they don't have artifacts the other is useless. If they don't have either you're looking at a lot of useless cards. That's why I prefer having one card that destroys either type, and will add another color to a deck just to have that card.

The only downside that I see is Blood Moon, but that's far less of a threat since we're playing primarily red/artifact. The worst that could happen is that you end up sitting on a Black Knight because you can't come up with the .

So that is how I justify adding a third color for a single card. If you have any counter arguments please add a comment. In the meantime you will see this technique continue in my next post, a deck called "Giant Howling Wurmies," a very similar fast-large-creature / burn deck, but red/green/white and a co-dependent combo (not as consistent but potentially game winning).

Priest of Yawgmoth

2005-05-15T08:02:00.000-07:00

I'm going to break formula here and present an idea for a deck rather than a playtested and polished one. Here's the idea: if you sacrifice a mana producing artifact to a Priest of Yawgmoth (1, 1/2 creature, Tap to add an amount of black mana equal to target artifact's casting cost to your mana pool) you can double the artifact's mana production. Sacrifice a Basalt Monolith after tapping it and you'll have 3. Even better, sacrifice a Su-Chi and you'll trigger it's mana production side-effect and get 4.

I've learned a few lessons from the deck prototyping that I've done with this concept so far. First is that if you're playing with Su-Chi you'll want to have someplace to sink the mana should it go and get itself killed before you get a chance to sacrifice it to Yawgmoth. Mishra's Factories work well for this. Second is that of the three creatures just mentioned, the Priest of Yawgmoth is the most vulnerable, enough so that some Animate Dead might be warranted. Third, and this is probably the most obvious, have plenty of spells with X in the casting cost. Fireball is the most obvious, but Rock Hydra also works rather nicely. Using a prototype deck I cast a 21/21 hydra.

If anyone would like to share a deck they've developed from this concept either post it in the comments or email it to me. I'll refrain from posting my version (should I even have a chance to finish it) for at least a week so that you won't be influenced by anything more than my ramblings in the above paragraph (making the deadline Sunday, May 22nd for you last-minute folk).

Temporary Template (new site feed)

2005-05-10T14:44:00.000-07:00

Temporary template change here. Archiving has changed here in blogger land. My other blogs are grandfathered in to the old archiving system, but this one is not, so the design has to change for archiving to work. But it's about time I got some of the new features working, like Previous Posts listed by title. Based on the struggles I've been having over my current freelance design project I'm realizing that I need to keep my design skills sharper than they have been, so when my freelance is under control I'll come back and give this thing a design overhaul.

Note: with the updates here this mtg sub-site now has it's own Atom Feed. So now when the site goes dormant for months at a time and then I post a flurry of decks you'll know. And if you don't have a feed reader, or know what one is, get yourself over to Bloglines right now.

Blue Skies

2005-05-05T19:26:00.000-07:00

Type 1.5

This deck has a bit of a story behind it. It started last October when my old high school roommate sent me this deck: Josh's Moat and Castle. Since then I've been considering building a competitive version of the deck.

I'll skip the part where I explain that decks must contain 60 cards, no more, no less, I've covered that before. First thing then was to make all the cards play well together. If we're playing with Moat (and of the two theme cards it's by far the better card) then we can't play any land bound creatures. So what does that leave us with for white creatures? Mesa Pegasus, Osai Vultures, and Serra Angel. Clearly the Serras are going to stay (earlier drafts of the deck contained 4), but the other two creatures just don't hold up on their own. They need supporting enchantments in order to survive creature combat with anything, and cost too much mana to be really fast. Supporting enchantments (except global ones like crusade) are a no go. So I fished around and found Thunder Spirit (tip: use the Advanced Search to generate a list of white creatures with flying) and then started thinking about adding another color.

Blue was the obvious choice for dominant flying creatures. I added Serendib Efreet and Phantasmal Forces. The Serendibs are huge for 3 mana, and at 4/1 the Forces have power equal to their casting cost, and the Castles could make them slightly less disposable (though unfortunately they were eventually squeezed out of the deck). Blue also let me play another fun card, Siren's Call, which works well with both Castle and Moat.

I started playtesting the deck at this point. It was on the right track, but just wasn't fast enough. I'm on a Type 1.5 kick, so there were no moxes for fast mana. I was playing Mana Vaults, but the trouble with them is that you have to draw them in the right order, a Vault followed by a Serra or Phantasmal Forces. Even adding in the Flying Men that I had forgotten wasn't enough. Unless I'm playing a reactive deck I want an opening move first hand every time. So I dipped in to a third color: green.

Green gave me the speed I was looking for. Scrybe Sprites clearly fit right in, Giant growths let my small/mid-sized creatures take on the big boys, and Birds of Paradise in my starting hand lets me play a Serendib or Thunder Spirit on my second turn, dominant creatures at that phase of the game, flying or no.

So that's the deck. If it weren't for the origin I'd probably ditch the Castles in favor of either the Phantasmal Forces, or a Jalum Tome or two to burn through the extra land in the middle to end game. Other than that I'd say this is a very solid deck, capable of taking on just about anything in it's class (it's about three for five against the Plague Rat test deck).

Lightning Sprites

2005-04-24T10:07:00.000-07:00

Type 1.5

Fleshing out my collection of Type 1.5 decks with this fast small creature deck. Took the opportunity to put in some cards that I've been wanting to play with and test against, like Blood Moon and Ball Lightning, and some others that are mostly just for fun, like Ghazban Ogre and Fire Sprites. But there is some logic behind those cards. You can't play the Ogres unless you're ahead in life, but with this deck if you're not out in front at the start of the game you're probably gonna loose anyway. Ball Lightning's is an aweful lot of red mana, the Fire Sprites are there to help out. And when you've got Granite Gargoyles flying around an extra red mana never hurt. I guess that's about it. Not a very complicated deck, but plenty of fun.